Meetings
by jamie55
Summary: A few short pieces about a few times Billy saw Penny doing their laundry. Set pre-Act 1-3 and with reference to the comics online. Warning: Some coarse language.
1. Sorted

Meetings

A/N: I don't know where this came from. I was editing another Dr Horrible fic and waiting 'til 12:30pm and watching some fanvids and then tada!

Title: Sorted

* * *

Billy walked in the door and slammed his laundry basket onto the washer.

Damn Hammer...

All he was trying to do was collect some iron for a stun gun, but the jerk face wouldn't even let him do that. Fucking asshole...

It almost made him want to ...

He sighed letting his shoulders slump.

He couldn't do that. He should... but it wasn't... his style?

He just couldn't.

He grumbled and started to sort out his laundry. He hated doing laundry. It was a waste of time. He could be working on an experiment, he could be trying to do something constructive, something good for the world – it needed saving – but instead he was pouring detergent into the washing machine and sorting the darks from the lights. Like it really made a difference. It was all the same in the end...

"Shit!"

Breaking off his own train of thought, he spun around to see who had spoken. A girl, four washing machines down, was looking into her washing machine, wincing with her eyes closed.

"Fuck..." he murmured under her breath, "damn ..stup... can't even sort laundry... idiot..." she scolded herself quietly hitting the top of the machine with her fist.

Billy blinked, captivated by the red-head. She was beautiful... He felt his stomach churn – a strange sensation.

She looked up and spotted him staring at her, her brow creased. They both looked away, blushing.


	2. Drying

Title: Drying

* * *

He had been working all week to perfect his stun gun and it still had a few glitches; but that was alright, he was toying with a few new ideas.

He saw that girl again. She came in with a clip board and a disappointed visage.

She did her laundry in a separate row, it was a big Laundromat. When he was passing by to put his stuff in the dryer he saw that she only had 2 signatures on it.

When she went to dry her clothes, he signed it. It was something about the ocean... whatever. He was sure it was for a good cause. It was her petition.


	3. Status Quo

Title: Status Quo

* * *

After a few weeks it had become a routine. Billy wasn't sure if the girl knew about it though. It's not as if he was invisible but... well... they hadn't talked. Not yet.

He just had to think of the perfect thing to say.

He couldn't just ramble on about anything...

And then, he had to say it. That was the hard part.

Three times in a row, three laundry days they – he thought – had established a non-verbal agreement of communication.

He would wait 'til she came in and then, when she did, he made eye contact, gave her a quick smile and sorted his laundry for the fiftieth. She returned the eye contact and twice she smiled back. The first time he tried it she turned around to see if he was looking at someone else. When she turned back he was deeply concerned with his laundry, embarrassed at his attempt and hoping she didn't think he was a weirdo. But she came to do her laundry a few washers away from him, so it was fine.

Then it began slightly unsteady when he got there late to see her already doing her laundry. He cursed himself and sighed, taking a place in the row across from her.

He didn't see her quietly raising her eyes to look at him.


	4. Birthday

Title: Birthday

* * *

He found out her name was Penny.

It wasn't illegal.

And so what if it was? He was a villain.

Hammer had been signing autographs in the park today and Billy had wanted to try out his newest gadget, the weakening-ray. It was supposed to neutralize his muscles, make him weak. But Hammer had spotted him and before he could get it warmed up.

Okay, so maybe wearing his Dr. Horrible outfit left him a little awkwardly in a public crowd, but he couldn't wear civilian clothing.

So Hammer, the corporate tool, dived into the crowd threw half a dozen innocent bystanders out of the way – he hit a kid, not cool dude – and crushed his weakening-ray. And then he punched him out of the park.

At least they didn't try to arrest him. That was the one good thing about Hammer.

He also posted a few posters for a henchmen. Maybe someone to help make a distraction or something... Who knows, they might be friends too...

He spotted Penny. She had just finished her load and was folding everything up. Didn't leave it 'til she got home. He liked that. No loose ends.

He knew her birthday had been a on Friday. He wanted to wish her a happy birthday, well a belated happy birthday (better late than never right?). He wanted to say a lot of things.

He took a deep breath, he could do this.

Happy belated birthday... happy late birthday... happy birthday, from before... oh how do I know? Lucky guess... no it was uh... a friend told me. I guessed... You look a year older? ...but not in a bad way, in a mature and prettier-everyday kind of way. Hey I heard it was your birthday... Wasn't it your birthday?... I think that girl you talked to last month who brought you some thai noodles told me... no too specific. I heard it was your birthday, the other day. That's not bad, nonchalant, cool but thoughtful, good say that. Wait what was it? I heard from that lady- no wait. I heard it was your birthday, before. I heard your birthday was before...

"Hmmurmple."

Fuck. He brought his hand up and grimaced.

Did he just say "Hmmurmple"?


	5. Almost

Title: Almost

A/N: Yay! I got another one! A bit – okay lot – longer than the previous ones but you don't mind right? I could cut it in two… I got excited and it ran away from me okay?!

* * *

"Hey Penny," Billy smiled. He jumped onto the washing machine next to hers and very casual glanced around their laundry mat.

"Hi Billy!" She grinned back, "I wasn't sure if I'd see you today. I mean," she looked away and fiddled with her dirty clothes, he turned back to her and acted quite nonchalant. "See, we're organizing this fundraiser in a few days and it's like this whole big deal."

"Yeah, I think you told me about that…" he pondered. "It's the picnic right?"

"Uh huh!" Her eyes brightened, "We're raising money to plant a few trees around town and to help protect a few who might get cut down for a parking lot. Can you believe that?" She said her mood changing to disgust. "They're going to cut down 30 years of work for a gas guzzling heap of metal!"

"It's murder."

"Exactly."

"The system is, like, broken." Billy added in a sigh, secretly pleased that they had so much common ground – even if it was on the cynical truth – because, of course they would have. They were perfect for one another; he knew it as soon as he had seen her. (Yeah… That wasn't creepy…)

"So," Penny shook her head and continued, "anyways." She smiled. The absolute and undeniably greatest thing he'd ever seen. Just thinking about it made his – well it made something in his chest swirl around. In a good way. "I was thinking that we – well, I mean…" She bit her lip and nervously fussed with her laundry. "You wanna come with me?"

"Like a date?" He cocked his eyebrow and tried not to grin like an idiot. She wouldn't date a idiot. She shrugged and blushed. He motioned his mouth to move, willing it to say the perfect thing – although it was probably hard when his brain wasn't properly functioning. "I'd love to be your date."

She looked back to him. He smiled. She smiled. They started to giggling, out of nervousness, and Billy suddenly heard a loud beep.

He blinked.

Billy was sitting on a chair, next to his dryer. Penny was on the other side of the room, unaware of his eyes on her or of his day dreaming. She was busy sorting and folding and measuring and all those other laundry activities. She was wearing a green tee-shirt with the words "TREES GIVE THE BEST HUGS" written in bold on the front. He realized his mouth was dry and that the elderly woman next to him was staring at him. He awkwardly turned his head in her direction.

"I don't date crazies." She frowned and Billy nodded, embarrassed at what he must have said. Then again, she was an old lady, a total stranger. Why should he care?

She wasn't the one he was worried about getting embarrassed in front of. He looked back to where Penny was. She closed her machine. Her hair tumbled in front of her. She started the machine with one hand and tucked a few strands behind her ears.

She wasn't smiling today. She seemed sad. Or bored – they were doing laundry, not too exciting. He wanted to go up and talk to her. He wanted to see – no, he wanted to make her smile and laugh. He wanted to be the one to lift her mood. To hold her tight…

His lips twitched upwards. She turned her back to him, folding her arms. Her shoulders slumped – did she sigh?

He stared down at the floor. He couldn't go up to her. What would he say? "Hi, you don't know me, but I really like you and I saw you standing around and you looked kind of sad – are you alright? Do you want to talk about anything?" She'd call him a crazy weirdo.

But he couldn't help it; he had to look back up. She still had her back to him. He gulped, stood up and took two steps forward. Pausing, he blinked and turned to his dryer to collect his clothes. He left without folding his stuff.

Next week. He'd say something next week.


	6. Accidentally

Title: Accidentally

A/N: This one is of decent "sorry I have ignored all my fics for like a year" size, right? Anyways, I want to wrap this plotless series...

* * *

Fumbling with his overfilled laundry basket, Billy was somehow able to open the door to the Laundromat and dropped only a single t-shirt. After picking up the fallen t-shirt and grumbling a few nasty words – it hadn't been the best of weeks – he was shocked to see that his actions were being watched.

He had looked up from his shirt, still in a crouched position, to see Penny glancing down at him, holding one of her own shirts. He instantly blushed and forgot himself – which was how someone was easily able to knock him down, emptying the contents of his basket upon the floor and bruising his left knee, as they opened the door.

"Ow," he whispered to himself half ironically, as he knew quite well there was no one around to hear it. The door-openee gave him one off-handed look, as if he had been the one knocked to the ground, before walking away without a word, to clean his unmentionables.

"Are you okay?" Penny had immediately come to crouch down next to Billy and was politely gazing into his eyes with the deepest of concerns. Billy blushed and opened his mouth, which failed to produce any real words. He quickly got off his stomach – as he had been knocked completely to the floor – and gave her a rushed nod and opened his mouth still further hoping something might come out.

_Say something you idiot!_

When nothing did, he blinked and looked away, not daring to continue in such a tangle, longing stare. From the corner of his eye he could see her giving him a short nod, her own gaze falling down to the ground as well, had he taken more attention to it he would have also noticed the hopeful curves of her mouth falling along with her eyes.

"Uh..." was all Billy managed to say while he looked at the mess. He frantically started to pick them up. His nervous hands, unresponsive to his demands to slow down, were following the erratic rhythm within his chest.

"Oh," Penny began picking them up.

_Hi, my name is Billy. Say it, say it! What's your name? Ask her! Tell her! _

Billy stopped for a second, half a second – and stole it away. He looked up from his dirty clothes and looked at Penny. The way her hair fell in front of her face, the way her lips pursed, the way she was concentrating on the task at hand, the attention put into keeping her eyes on the floor, on his clothes, the way her cheeks flushed bright pink, the...

He blinked and got back to work, picking his last sock off the ground.

"Thanks..." Somehow he was able to shoo the word out of his mouth and she smiled, standing back up.

"No problem. Some people..." Her eyes darted to the man who had caused Billy's fall.

_Yeah, some people. _Billy glared at him. _At least it wasn't a clean load._

"Accidents happen," she said with an easy shrug. He nodded, but it was mostly for his own hope that the conversation would carry on. "Anyhow, it was a dirty load of clothes..." She paused a moment, but after an awkward silence, turned away, back to her own laundry, back to her own machine, leaving Billy hopelessly wanting to slam his forehead against the laundry machine – fear of being perceived as lunatic stopped him.


	7. Cancelled

Title: Cancelled

A/N: Part 7 out of 10. Forcing a limit! Anyways, ten is such a nice number. This part is kinda meh.

* * *

She wasn't there. Billy checked the clock once more. She wasn't here.

He gulped.

What if something happened?

What if she got hurt? He knew she lived in a pretty bad neighbourhood (he wasn't stalking he was curious), what if someone pulled a knife on her, or a gun, or…

He blinked, eyes darting around the quiet Laundromat, hoping he had missed her somehow.

She never misses a day, she never missed a day.

He'd been waiting for two hours. It's not like they always came at the same time, that would be way too phenomenal, but they were approximate. The worse so far had been him coming in as she was leaving – he has lost track of time working on a new theory.

Billy took another look at the clock, now clenching his fist, safely tucked away into his hoodie's pockets.

What if something happened to her?


End file.
